Enthusiasm for Obama has waned since 2008, campaign volunteer says

Any day now I’m expecting the phone call. “Mr. Cuttita, I’m calling from Obama for America. Our records indicate that during the ’08 presidential campaign, you generously offered housing for out-of-state campaign workers. As I’m sure you know, Colorado is still a swing state, and the ground game here is vitally important to the president’s re-election chances. Can we count on your support again?”[1]

My well-rehearsed reply: “Well, it’s complicated. Because of an anemic economy and a lack of opportunity for younger people, my 22-year-old daughter returned to the roost and is now occupying the space that previously housed your campaign workers.

“But even if my daughter wasn’t living here, I’m not sure I can accommodate your request. I still support the president, but I’m not feeling the enthusiasm I did in ’08.”

After 3 1/2 years, I don’t blame President Obama for grim employment statistics, or the fact that my basement has been turned into a wasteland of soiled towels, cosmetics, and orphaned flip-flops. But I’m not as enamored of him as I once was, either.

In June 2008, my houseguests arrived. Both were full-time campaign workers: one a clinical data coordinator from San Francisco and the other a sometimes actor from New York City whose twin sister was a very talented A-list Hollywood actress. Their energy and idealism were a breath for fresh air during an uncommonly hot summer.

I recently talked to Rory, the fellow from San Francisco. He described his time spent working on the ’08 campaign as “a defining experience of my life.” He went on to talk about the hundreds of people he met and of “feeling a responsibility not to let them down.”

He added, “The most dedicated volunteers had some personal experience with the broken health care system, and their stories are what motivated me to work in health policy.” (After the campaign, Rory moved to Washington, D.C., to work for the Brookings Institution researching health policy.)

Rory is still an Obama supporter, and despite a busy schedule and admittance to medical school, he’s found time to volunteer at two phone banks. He summed up his sincerity by saying, “And now as I’m entering med school, I have a very strong interest to see Obama get re-elected so that the patients I treat as a doctor have insurance.”

Like the baby boomers who answered Kennedy’s call, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” by joining the Peace Corps or becoming public servants (yes, public service was once considered a noble profession), thousands of millennials like Rory signed up because they believed they were serving the greater good.

Boomers like me opened our homes and emptied our wallets to support a candidate we believed could unite a bitterly divided country. Never before had there been a more promising candidate than Barack Obama, who accepted his party’s nomination in Denver on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

The almost irrational exuberance of Obama-mania was eventually brought back to earth by bare-knuckle politics, dreadfully produced political theater, and jaw-dropping vitriol.

Any hope that Obama might be able to bridge the political divide was laid to rest when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went on record as saying, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Hope and Change? Forgetaboutit!

There was a growing frustration that Obama wasn’t hitting back. Murmurings of “Hillary wouldn’t have let this happen” began to surface — prematurely.

President Obama has taken bold stands on marriage equality and immigration, delivered on health care reform, and put his legacy on the line by ordering the strike on Osama bin Laden.

He may not have delivered us to the Promised Land, but as president, Barack Obama has proven himself to be a fearless leader who is prepared to take on all comers — including the billionaires who have vowed to defeat him in November.

Thom Cuttita (thom@cuttita.net) was a member of the 2000 Colorado Voices panel.